AUTISM-FRIENDLY DESIGN STRATEGIES IN DESIGN OF SKILL ACQUISITION CENTRE GUSAU, ZAMFARA STATE

By

Author

Presented To

Department of Environmental Design

ABSTRACT
Autism is a group of developmental brain disorders, collectively called autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The prevalence of ASD has increased over the past two decades, rising from 2 in 10,000 children in 1990 to 1 in 68 children in 2012, these alarming rates of increase call for attention by all the fields of study and architecture has been ignoring the effect of built environment in their development. The fact that more children are being diagnosed with ASD every day creates the need for livelong support for individuals to transition into adulthood. An aspect of autism which is rarely researched and understood is the remarkable talent found so frequently with this condition. As such; this research aims to identify those talents associated to autistics and propose a skill acquisition centre that is autism-friendly to cater for their sensory needs. This research makes an effort to understand the psychology of individuals with Autism and attempts to provide an appropriate solution for it. This research considered autistic individuals in Northwest Nigeria; which is a region that currently has no facility to cater for the needs of people with autism. Multiple case studies were conducted of both autism centres and skill centres; using field observation and interview as instrument of data collection. Previous studies suggested various autism-friendly design strategies from which a research framework was developed as variables which were assessed in the selected case studies. The results obtained show that anything that impacts attention, auditory input, visual input, movement of autistic individuals also affects their behaviours; the use of design strategies such as acoustics, spatial sequencing, safety, curved walls, proxemics, quiet spaces, lighting and ventilation help to improve their condition. Based on inferences from various case studies and literature studies, a framework was generated from a combination of autism-friendly design strategies and design requirements for skill acquisition centre which was applied in the proposed design of Autism-friendly skill acquisition centre.